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Time：第98次例會，2007年03月17日（週六）下午2:30~5:30
Place：
viewtopic.php?t=15
14:30~15:30 (Free Talks)
15:30~16:00(Speaker Session)
16:00~17:15 (Topic Discussion)
17:15~17:30 (Happy Time)
Host: Willie Cheng
Assistant Host: Dustin Wu
Topic: "Wal-Mart With Wings"
Source:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/co ... =rss_magzn
November 16, 2006 BusinessWeek
Unlike other discount carriers, Ryanair has stayed profitable by charging for every little bit of service by Kerry Capell
Ryanair Holdings PLC (RYAAY) CEO Michael O'Leary makes no apologies for his penny-pinching. Want to check luggage? You'll pay up to $9.50 per bag for the privilege. Free drinks and snacks? Forget about it. Even a bottle of water will set you back $3.40. It's not just passengers who have to cough it up. Flight crew buy their own uniforms, and staff at Ryanair's spartan Dublin Airport headquarters must supply their own pens. After a customer sued Ryanair for charging $34 for the use of a wheelchair, the company added a 63 cents "wheelchair levy" to every ticket. Says O'Leary: "You want luxury? Go somewhere else."
CELL-PHONE MODEL
O'Leary's secret? He thinks like a retailer and charges for absolutely every little thing, except the seat itself. Last year, Ryanair gave away 25% of its seats, a figure O'Leary thinks he can double within five years. In the not-too-distant future, he wants all seats to go for free. What O'Leary loses in seat revenue, he figures he'll more than make up by turning both his planes and the Ryanair Web site into stores brimming with irresistible goodies, even as he charges for such "perks" as priority boarding and assigned seating.
Outrageous? You bet, but the strategy is working. Although its average fare is $53, compared with $92 for Southwest, Ryanair's net margins are, at 18%, more than double the 7% achieved by Southwest. "Ryanair is Wal-Mart with wings," says Nick van den Brul, an aviation analyst at Exane BNP Paribas in London.
O'Leary has plenty of clever new ways to make money. He has turned his planes into giant billboards, displaying ads for such companies as Vodafone Group, Jaguar, and Hertz. Soon, ads will also stare each passenger in the eye when their seat back trays are up. Once in the air, flight attendants hawk everything from scratch-card games to perfume and digital cameras. Upon arrival at some out-of-the-way airport (you may think you're landing in Paris, but it is actually Beauvais, 43 miles north of the City of Light), Ryanair will sell you a bus or train ticket into town.
Ryanair uses its Web site, with 15 million unique visitors each month, to boost ancillary revenues. The company gets commissions from sales of Hertz rental cars, hotel rooms, ski packages, and travel insurance.
HIGH ROLLERS
The next frontier for O'Leary is gaming. Ryanair recently added online gambling to its Web site, but O'Leary figures there's more money to be had by offering gaming on his planes once Ryanair launches inflight mobile-phone service next year. "We have no idea how big online gambling will be, but we think it will be significant," he says.
A willingness to take chances has transformed Ryanair from a near-bankrupt basket case back in the 1980s into Europe's most profitable airline. The turnaround came after O'Leary met Southwest founder Herbert D. Kelleher 15 years ago. Kelleher imparted his formula for success over dinner at a Dallas steak house: Fly one type of plane to secondary airports outside major cities. Keep costs low and planes in the air, with quick turnaround times. And forget perks such as frequent-flier miles. O'Leary followed Kelleher's advice, leading Kelleher to dub Ryanair "the best imitation of Southwest Airlines that I have seen."
For starters, Ryanair sells more than 98% of its tickets online, cutting down on administration costs and travel agent commissions. JetBlue sells 78% of its seats over the Internet, and Southwest just 59%. Ryanair's fleet of Boeing 737-800s have long ago been stripped down to the bare essentials. Seats don't recline, the better to cram in more passengers. Window shades have been removed, so flight attendants don't have to spend time resetting them between flights. Seat-back pockets have been ditched--one less place for clutter to accumulate.
Clearly, Kelleher's own combative stance against the status quo has provided O'Leary with an effective role model. He once made headlines calling European Union commissioners "communist morons," while dismissing the British Airport Authority as "overcharging rapists." He has dressed as the Pope to promote flights to Rome and has driven a tank to rival easyJet Airline Co.'s headquarters. "We specialize in cheap publicity stunts," he says.
Questions:
1. You can buy a flight ticket for a minimal price of 9.99 pounds up if you log onto the Ryanair website due to the next-to-nothing service. When you travel by yourself, how do you single out the airline you are going to fly with? Quality, gorgeous flight attendants, or prices?
2. Do you expect on-line gambling will promise a fortune for Ryanair? Or do you envision any services which will guarantee a profit? Or any necessary amendment
3. Which airline you flew with before do you think the best? Why? If every airline doesn’t sate your expectation, why not?
4. Is there any engrossing experience ever happened on the airplane in your trip? Or any delectable events from other people’s trip?
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台北，每週六 (2005年6月起)
Taipei, Saturday, Weekly
from June, 2005
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高雄，每月最後一個週日 (2007年4月起)
Kaohsiung, Final Sunday, Monthly
from April, 2007
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